Stay tuned. There is more rumblings coming from Florida about more than one Bush snub going as far back as 2004.

A sitting President not wanting to share the stage with a Congressman when he goes to their district? What did Bush know? And when did he know it?

This is something that definitely needs to be followed up on.

The story is starting to look more and more like a massive coverup involving a Congressman whose sole virtue was that raised big dollars. Let's examine this more closely.

The GOP leadership from Bush on down appears to care more about money than protecting teenagers under their care. They care more about money than securing our ports from shadowy investment interests. They care more about money than giving our troops sufficient body armor. These points and more should be hit upon more and more as we get to November 7.

But the Foley issue should be out in the center. There are several issues that should be examined here. First of all many of you seem to think Bush either has some sort of super 'braindead hick-fundie-racist' majority or that he can steal elections at will. His first election he stole outright by having his brother purge legal voters off the roles using race as a guideline. He only was able to secure victory by 300 some votes (inflated to 537 when Katherine Harris crassly would not allow Palm Beach County to report their results a couple hours after the official deadline). His second was accomplished through a myriad of voter suppression techniques coupled with very skilled pinpoint issue baiting and turnout. And that netted him the lowest 're'-elect percentage difference in the history of American presidential elections. And this was at a time when soldiers were dying in a foreign war.

His pickups in the two last election cycles were the result of southern terrorist and race-baiting, an off year Texas redistricting and bashing gays from coast to coast. They were amplified in the press because they were seen as against a historical trend but this was back in a different world where Bush still had credibility on some issues in the eyes of voters and the press. Gays are off the table. Those who lather themselves into a fury at the thought of gays seducing their kids are not going to vote in the same numbers as before when it was on the ballot.

Right now he has none. NONE. The GOP on issue polling is LOSING EVERY ISSUE. The evangelicals that many point to as to Bush winning on the gay bashing amendments and the 'faith-based' agenda in polling are now SPLIT EVENLY between parties where the GOP had a 40-60 point advantage before. And guess how many people who voted to bash gays and ended up voting for Bush and the GOP down ticket aren't even going to bother to vote this time?

They are trying to bring up the 'illegals' issue but it will hurt them as much as help them. Bush has lost a large voting bloc by presenting his fence-sitting corporate slave plan. And seeing how Bush isn't willing to fully throw his hat into the reconquista conspiracy theorist ring instead opting for the corporate slave route, the GOP will get to ride on the worst fears of both sides. You have to start to realize that the only people that have become active are those that hate Bush. And I'm talking about the Minutemen too. In the Southwest congressmen are pushing this issue as hard as they can but they have no support from the top. And outright racism veiled in 'illegal' language is a surefire way to lose in the future.

And more house races continue to open up. Kos is tired of getting burned and so is predicting another Democratic defeat, but he will enjoy being wrong on this one. This could be a 50-75 seat pickup. Look...we already know some people are going to lose because either they dont have their name on the ballot because someone else's is on there who resigned (Tom DeLay, Mark Foley), those who are under investigation, going to jail or who are connected to scandal (Shimkus, Hastert, Reynolds, Ney, Burns, Weldon to name a few) and the Democrats aren't going to pick up a measley 10 or so on top of these when they own a 20 pt advantage on the generic ballot and are WINNING EVERY ISSUE.

NTM every time Bush opens his mouth up about the economy some former manufacturing worker turned WalMart employee in Michigan is grimacing. And not only in Michigan. Wages are stagnant. Health insurance and gas prices are eating up discretionary spending. The housing boom is going bust. And another month just passed where the trade deficit just hit another record high. Corporate profits are soaring while the worker gets screwed. And Bush keeps talking about how great the economy is.

This is how radical populism swept the midwest in late 19th century. Monopolies built upon the back of the farmer. Whose side do you think the small town papers were on there? Usually the only source of news in a town, they were also heavily Republican which was heavily pro-trust. Pro-management. Pro-railroad. Pro-corporation. And yet the people, some scarcely educated, resisted. They elected their own state legislatures, their own representatives and despite having a losing candidate THREE TIMES in a row, they finally accidentally got someone who would do something about it (Teddy Roosevelt). And then for the next twelve years you couldn't win on any other word but progressive reform. Women got the vote, eight hour workdays became a reality, and people got to directly vote for their Senator for the first time. The federal income tax was instituted to provide the government with the ability to collect money it needed to fund its new programs and responsibilities which would burgeon into the large modern bureaucracy that we recognize today. The income tax was structured so the burden was not shifted to the middle class and the poor thus providing a redistributive mechanism. All of this was seen by the rich and powerful as RADICAL change. And it all occurred with the cards stacked much more against the reformers.

Something has got to give this election. IF Democrats had a uniting opposition theme that could strike at the heart of GOP incompetence and corruption they could guarantee a supermajority in the House but as is they will not fall short.

Some people might start to talk about tribalism and identity but the tribe is broken. They got no 'killing babies' or 'brownie's gonna get ya' this time around. Brownie did get us...was called Katrina. Don't get me wrong, some people would vote GOP if they found out an old GOP congressman was fucking their daughter, their son was killed in Iraq, and their grandma died in her New Orleans nursing home after it was abandoned (bad apple, for freedom, bad company), but these people are few and far between. Shame of the GOP will make many others call themselves 'independent Conservatives' or some other title and throw their votes over to the libertarians for Congress while still giving their GOP vote to state and local candidates.